The Framers of our Constitution enshrined freedom of the press in the very first Amendment, up at the top of the Bill of Rights, not because they were great fans of journalists – like many politicians, then and now, they were not – but rather because they knew, as Thomas Jefferson put it, that, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free… it expects what never was and never will be.” Dan Rather 6/7/08

He actually responds when apparently there was an outcry from the right about the interview Brian did with W that almost took W to task but actually shied away.Â Ironically the first post is the most funny.Â $5 says that poster never said how the Clinton administration was OUR government and we should support it.Â

President George W. Bush perpetually invokes the goal of spreading democracy to sanctify his foreign policy. Unfortunately, he is only the latest in a string of presidents who cloaked aggression in idealistic rhetoric. Killing in the name of democracy has a long and sordid history. http://www.lewrockwell.com/bovard/bovard33.html

“Even the best number from yesterdayâ€™s Census Bureau report for 2005 is bad news for most Americans. It shows that median income rose 1.1 percent last year, to $46,326, the first increase since it peaked in 1999. But the entire increase is attributable to the 23 million households headed by someone over age 65. So the gain is likely from investment income and Social Security, not wages and salaries.

For the other 91 million households, the median dropped, by half a percent, or $275. Incomes for the under-65 crowd were hurt by a decline in wages and salaries among full-time working men for the second year in a row, and among full-time working women for the third straight year. In all, median income for the under-65 group was $2,000 lower in 2005 than in 2001, when the last recession bottomed out.”

Ok well I won’t ask them myself since my schedule is jam packed as it is so let’s choose a big school like the University of Michigan…let’s toss in Eastern Michigan State University too who can ask questions!Â They must know how to speak there language right?Â Ok!Â Now we are cookin!Â

Let’s ask a good number of Iraqis…maybe about 1000…NO let’s do 2500 or so.Â Perfect!Â They have to be from all over the place so it is not just one group we are checking in with…gotcha!!!!Â

Would you NOT like to have an American as a neighbor?2004- 87% would not like you2006- 90% would not like youTrending down there in that one.Â Maybe it is your breath, I just brushed so it can’t be mine!!!Â Maybe another question.Â

Question 2- Why did the US invade Iraq?76%- to control Iraqi oilNot to give life giving breaths of Democracy laced with Listerine and Crest?Â Apparently they don’t think so!!!Â

Question 3- Would Iraq be a better place if religion and state were divided further?2004- 27%2006- 41%Kind of funny since the USA is heading the opposite way where we want more God tossed in our political salad.Â

Question 4- I am an Iraqi above all else?2004- 23%2006- 28%from 23 percent to 33 percent in urban areas, and from 30 percent to 62 percent among Baghdad residents.Baghdad people are more Iraq-centric but the rest of country seems to be a little bit on the fence.Â

Question 5- Is your life unpredictable and dangerous?Â Yes?2004- 46%2006- 59%Let’s just ask Kurds this question.Â Prior to the war the Kurds basically had their own country to the northern part of Iraq and were really living in a peaceful economically well state of Iraq and they could almost be seen as like Turkey2004- 17%2006- 54%WOW!Â They have REALLY taken a turn for the worse in their eyes.This change was from 41 percent to 48 percent among Shi’as, 77 percent to 84 percent among Sunnis and 67 percent to 79 percent among Muslims.

So 90 percent do NOT want you as a neighbor…they think you want their oil…they think their life is awful since the war and they are getting more and more sick of God being dragged into their government.Â Hm!Â Â

Why do youÂ sell books thatÂ give directionÂ to kill Wal Mart employees and so many other people?Â I see your happy face advertisements and cannot believe you sell books that promote such murderous ideas!!!!

They go day by day back many years in showing the timeline of us getting into the Iraq War.Â This is an odd FLASH driven page so you have to scroll on the left side of the image to go up or down on the year meter.

“It might seem a little strange from the outside, but it makes sense from a legal point of view,” said Kelley, now in private practice. “If I were in government, I’d be troubled if I were asked to put up a wanted picture where no formal charges had been filed, no matter who it was.”

So Osama Usama has not been charged with the destruction of 9/11?Â Is this what that article says?

Aren’t you glad that all those horrible horrible terrorist people are investigated, have their phones tapped, are followed by goons in black helicopters, they are watched at all times and it only makes sense.Â When it comes to me, I do nothing that would draw atention to me so to support the Patriot Act is a good thing because people like me do nothing that would implicate me wrongly into a horrible investigation that would possibly ruin my life.Â The government has way too much real crime to investigate so I would NEVER EVER be caught up in anything that would be an issue so when I see people being investigated it warms my heart.

Weâ€™ve been fascinated by the story of how Jim Bensman of Alton, Ill., went to a hearing about fish and wound up as a potential terrorism suspect.

As Cornelia Dean reported in The Times, the Army Corps of Engineers held a meeting in Mr. Bensmanâ€™s neighborhood to talk about helping those fish swim around the locks and dams it has constructed on the Mississippi River over the years. There was a PowerPoint presentation on various options. One â€” clearly not the Corpsâ€™s favorite â€” was to eliminate a dam in East Alton. To illustrate that idea, the presentation included a picture of a dam being dynamited.

Mr. Bensman rose later to support removing the dam. Big mistake.

A local paper reported that Mr. Bensman told the Corps he â€œwould like to see the dam blown up.â€

A Corps security officer read the report. He decided that Mr. Bensman was threatening a public facility. He notified the G-men.

An F.B.I. agent then contacted Mr. Bensman, who was surprised to learn that federal investigators believed a terrorist might announce his plans at a public hearing of the Army Corps of Engineers.

When the agent said he wanted to visit his home, it occurred to Mr. Bensman that he needed a lawyer. At that point, Mr. Bensman said, the agent threatened to â€œput you down as not cooperating.â€

All this started because Mr. Bensman believes the Army Corps builds way too many locks and dams on the Mississippi for the convenience of boating interests. This page has always thought so too.

But not in any way, shape or form that involves any kind of sabotage whatsoever.

In 2005, the National Debt under Bush has increased so drastically that it reached $8 trillion. This means that the average Americanâ€™s estimated share of national debt will be $24,000 when he leaves office, compared to $500 when he took office.

Since March 2001, the economy has had the lowest job growth of any business cycle since the Great Depression. (http://www.americanprogress.org/atf/cf/%7bE9245FE4-9A2B-43C7-A521-5D6FF2E06E03%7d/SOTU_ECONOMY.PDF)

Responsible for creating a $521 billion dollars budget deficit less than four years after inheriting a $200 billion dollars surplus.

Responsible for the highest US trade deficit ever, totaling to $43 billion dollars.

Proposed a plan to allow illegal immigrants and foreign nationals to work in the United States for up to six years before being sent home. Under the proposed temporary worker plan, an estimated 8 million to 11 million illegal immigrants in the country and foreign nationals outside the country could register with the government to work in the United States for three years which would require billions and billions of taxpayer dollars for the eventual immigrant exodus out of the country and back to their original homes.

Monthly job growth since 2003 is 50% lower under Bush than it was under Clinton (Since August 2003, job growth has averaged 160,000 per month. During Clintonâ€™s eight years in office job growth averaged 236,000 per month).

Under Bush, net national savings have dropped from 4.9% when Bush took office to 1.0% last quarterâ€“ its lowest level since the Great Depression. [BEA]

The poverty rate has risen each year since Bush took office from 11.7% in 2001 to 12.7% last year as 4 million people fell into poverty. [Census, Aug. 2005, Table B-1]

Child poverty rate is on the riseâ€”jumping from 16.3% in 2001 to 17.8% in 2004. As 1.3 million children under 18 have fallen into poverty [Census, Aug. 2005, Table B-2]

African American poverty has also jumped every year since Bush took officeâ€”from 22.7% in 2001 to 24.7% in 2004 as nearly 1 million (864,000) African Americans have fallen under the poverty line. [Census, Aug. 2005, Table B-1]

“This evening the Senate had the chance to bring three very important issues to the floor for debate: permanent death tax relief, extension of expiring tax provisions, and a minimum wage increase of more than 40 percent.”

Amazing how they are happy to give $500 billion to the super rich and they originally fought against the $2 rise in minimum wage.Â The families that benefit the end of the Estate Tax are the top .2% wage earners.Â 59 African Americans had to pay Estate Taxes last year.Â Almost 8 million people work for minimum wage.Â Who are Republicans working for?

While 85% said the U.S. mission is mainly â€œto retaliate for Saddamâ€™s role in the 9-11 attacks,â€ 77% said they also believe the main or a major reason for the war was â€œto stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq.â€

So the 85% of troops that believe we are there because Saddam had something to do with 9/11 will logically drop to 0% correct?Â We will see.

Despite a lengthy period of economic expansion, the current US economy has a chance to become the first period of sustained growth since World War II in which real wages for workers also failed to increase, The New York Times reported in todayâ€™s editions.

The median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2 percent since 2003, after factoring in inflation. In contrast, economists report that productivity â€” the amount that an average worker produces in an hour â€” has risen steadily during the same period.

Did you hear this story about Glenn Beck mocking the Braille labels that are on things for the blind?Â http://mediamatters.org/items/200608250004This is the problem with the right.Â They are so focused on how things affect them, that they simply discount things that donâ€™t.Â They make a lot of money, they have a retirement plan that is huge, all of the businesses they own are doing well so those that don’t have that stuff should dry up and blow away.Â Or if they are poor and vote Republican they help the rich get richer while hurting their own interests.Â

So the blind…why do we have to help them at all since the labels make me crazy!!!!Â I donâ€™t see why the irritating labels I hate have to be there where I can see them!!!!And while we are at it….Â Why didnâ€™t those people in New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina hop in their Hummer, load it up with filets with a swing by Costco and go to their summer home in Jacksonville for a week while the storm blew through New Orleans?Â They knew it was coming for a week!!! Those poor people should stop being poor…and those damn blind people…for god’s sake get some sight…i’m sick of seeing them stumble around like…a blind man!!!!!!Â Â

Maybe some people can’t see and maybe they will be somewhere without help so the Braille labels might help them.Â Putting Braille on a coffee pot that says hot…Beck is an ass. I know he is a shock jock but it just makes me look at the bigger picture and the way have-nots are treated by some of the haves just makes me irate!!!!!!Â

Why doesnâ€™t Beck go a week without sight?Why doesnâ€™t the right live with a poor family for a month on their income in their house?Â You will NEVER see that!!!!!Â Jane Byrne, former Mayor of Chicago did just that for a month…she was a…drumroll please…Democrat.Â She lived in Cabrini Green, arguably the worst project in the nation.Â

How many millions are you leaving to your heirs?Â Remember that if you leave less than $7 million to your heirs you don’t have to pay $1 in Estate Taxes.Â That will go up to $10 million in the next year or two and it may be erased entirely so try to live a little longer so Uncle Sam gets nothing when you kick the bucket.Â I currently have about $12 million to leave…the immigrants from El Salvador above me that don’t speak English have about $6 million….the Peruvians on the other end of the building have about $17 million and those wacky Philippinos inbetween me and the Peruvians only have about $3 million.Â I better work hard so I donâ€™t see any taxes on that…what about your estate?

And that’s the important part. We don’t have any interest in stories like the Runaway Bride, but if news organizations think they can pay some bills by appealing to the public’s inner voyeurs, that’s their business. Literally. But when they leave stories of actual national significance uncovered, or poorly covered, while devoting massive resources to lurid local crime stories, that’s something we should all care about. That’s something we should reject.Â After all, it’s no coincidence that half the country falsely believes that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. When NBC devotes only 27 seconds to a federal court ruling that the Bush administration has been trampling the Constitution, but spends almost eight minutes on JonBenet Ramsey; when The New York Times assigns a couple of reporters to the Bush administration’s illegal actions and more than a dozen to Ramsey; and when CNN ignores the Downing Street memo in favor of the Runaway Bride — should we really be surprised that the public lacks even a basic understanding of the most important issues of our time?

The Separation of Powers devised by the framers of the Constitution was designed to do one primary thing: to prevent the majority from ruling with an iron fist. Based on their experience, the framers shied away from giving any branch of the new government too much power. W may have too much power that is going unchecked by Congress but there is no investigation into it because Republoicans block it.http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_sepp.html

Do you really think a man that didnt know the names of foreign leaders (Bush) would want to be President as opposed to one of the mosty politically active men in DC (that’s Cheney). Karl Rove said he could make W president…all other Presidents made themselves President. Reminds me of the old Hollywood quote, “Kid, I’m gonna make you a star!”
Check out Cheney’s past in DC and think who was elected the REAL President.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney.Â George Bush is taking a vacation but that’s OK, Cheney is there to mind the store. And then there is a discussion about it here, check out my 2 posts here.

Those Muslims sure know how to indoctrinate their children to hate at a young age andÂ bring terror to other people.Â The Muslims really brainwash their children to listen to their leaders without question, they want everyone to believe in their views only and are willing to kill for it.Â THEY are one of the worst things about the present state of the world.Â

Everyone knows there are quite a few mercenaries working on “our side” in Iraq.Â Take a look at this video.Â There needs to be a good deal of explanation as to what is going on in this video, but if it is what it looks like, you can see why the Iraqi people arent greeting us with flowers and kisses.

America has seen a lot of warnings, watches and scares over the past few years.Â Sometimes the publicising of these possibly horrible security warnings fell right after other news reports making the announcements seem strangely timed.Â They were just crazy coincidences…right?

As is the case with everything else, Republicans are trying to sell off the internet so they will personally make more money.Â Do you like the internet as it is?Â Do you like getting free stuff online like free email, videos or a calendar or having access to news sites from around the world?Â Despite the free stuff you get the internet providers and websites are making huge profits.Â Your internet provider wants MORE.Â The internet as we know it really could be coming to an end quite soon.Â

The internet now works this way….You pay for internet service to your house.Google pays for internet service to their servers and for the bytes they send as video or other computery stuff to you.Â

Internet providers now want to charge Google (and every other web page and online service) to access you as if you are a salable commodity.Â So ISPs want to double charge Google despite Google already paying for their bandwidth that they send onto the internet.Â Is Google making money?Â Yes!Â Is the ISP making money on Google and is the ISP making money on you by using their service?Â Yes! But the ISPs want MORE and that means you will have LESS.If Google (and other websites) is charged to access you then you are going to kiss almost every free service on the internet goodbye and the internet will change drastically from what it is now.Â Every other web page and service will either be charged to access you, or their service to you could very well be slowed to a crawl.Â Why would it be slowed?Â Because the website wonâ€™t be paying to access you, despite the fact that they paid THEIR internet provider for the bandwidth they use.Â So if your internet provider for instance, wants you to use Yahoo as opposed to Google, they can easily slow all of the bytes from Google in order to urge you to use their Yahoo service which is fastâ€¦.because Yahoo paid the internet provider.Â Also, smaller websites will be charged to access you and if they donâ€™t pay their bytes to you can easily be slowed to a crawl.Â If you want to use Google as opposed to Yahoo then you donâ€™t mind waiting 30 seconds for the Google page to load do you?Â Or how about if your internet provider takes a political stance and slows all web pages that do not agree with their philosophy?Â Or if they want you to use a certain bank they can slow your bank site down drastically so you will want the speed of their bank.Â This filtering is very easy to do now.Â This is not theoretical; it is easy to do now as China does it to many sites and several internet providers have done it with phone service.Â

Who is for this change of the internet?Â Republicans in Congress are generally for charging websites to access you (despite the sites ALREADY paying for the bandwidth they use) and changing the internet which is called being AGAINST Net Neutrality.Â Democrats are generally against charging Google and changing the internet which is called being FOR Net NeutralityA good net neutrality site ishttp://www.savetheinternet.com/Â

Finally- who is the fool leading this?Â Republican Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska.Â I know many people are not very tech savvy but imagine this guy doing anything to your computer let alone controlling your internet service.Â Please check out this link, view the videohttp://youtube.com/watch?v=8rZEi70UyJsÂ